Business View Magazine - Mar 2024

HISTORY OF ARLINGTON TRANSPORTATION Ann Foss, Transportation Planning and Programming Manager for the city, shares that Arlington’s journey into modern transportation services began in 1980 with the establishment of Handitran, a traditional dial-a-ride service catering to elderly and disabled residents. She recounts, “Arlington is a large city, we’re the 50th largest city in the United States, but we haven’t had traditional fixed route transit in the past. However, we are aware that there are transportation needs for our residents and visitors.” In 2016, Arlington’s leadership took a proactive approach, recognizing the importance of engaging diverse perspectives to shape the city’s future mobility solutions. Foss expands,“Our mayor and city council appointed a Transportation Advisory Committee, which was a group of about 30 stakeholders from across the community representing different interests.They met for one year, and they put together a report that had recommendations for the city to consider. Two of the top recommendations in that report were some form of on-demand rideshare service and autonomous vehicles as being the most likely transportation modes that would work well in Arlington.” Working off of that framework, the city of Arlington launched the Arlington On-Demand rideshare service in December 2017, gradually extending its reach to be city-wide in 2021.“The service now covers the full 99 square miles of Arlington as well as the regional rail station, and provides daily transportation needs to the general public,” Foss explains. Autonomous vehicle services have been rolled out three times, starting with the initial 2017-2018 pilot, which operated off-street, connecting entertainment destinations, followed by the 2018-2019 introduction of an on-street circular route in the same district. The current autonomous vehicle (AV) service, known as RAPID, launched in March of 2021. Foss relays, “RAPID has been running since 2021, and is fully integrated into our on-demand service. Booking and payment are fully integrated, and when someone books a ride, if the parameters of their ride meet the AV service area and hours of operation, 135 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 11, ISSUE 03 ARL INGTON TRANSI T